“BIAS” IN EDUCATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 April 1929, Page 9

“BIAS” IN EDUCATION.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—This subject, recently touched upon at a public meeting addressed by f the Secretary for Labour, was carried further in your columns with the views expressed by jVIr 11. S. Sage, chairman of the Hawera Technical High School Board. It is refreshing to know that Mr Sage does not believe in keeping a problem of this kind for discussion only in a board room —he has repeatedly taken exception to the fact that the majority of students enrol for academic courses. Mr Sage dealt with numbers taking up agriculture as a vocation in Taranaki, and showed that 50 per cent finally reach agricultural pursuits. The position for the whole Dominion is not so reassuring. Returns for 1927 show that, of boys leaving primary schools, 20 per cent went in *for farming and 50 per cent went to secondary schools. Of these latter 19 per cent took up agriculture as their vocation on leaving. This 19 per cent is really only 9.5 per cent of the original primary school hoys, and, adding 9.5 per cent to the 20 per cent who went straight to the farms from the primary schools, we get 29.5 per cent of all boys eventually going on the land. This squares well with census figures, which show that 29.96 per cent of our breadwinners arc primary producers. The same source also gives 26.44 per cent as engaged in industries, and 34.1 per cent in commerce and professions. It seems that our school enrolments should compare hotter with such vital figures than tliev do. The discrepancy means that many will be forced to take up work, for which they are not educationally equipped. These will view higher education askance, and put their boys straight to work without any. Someof the kind must he at work — witness the fact that, of the 30 per cent of boys going on the laiid, 20 per cent receive no secondary education. Lastly, if two out of every three of our future farmers arc without the benefit of education in agricultural science, one wonders how this country will fare in competition with, say, Denmark on | the Home markets. —T am. et".. ALFRED H. LARKMAX.